On Friday, overnight letters from women's rights advocate Martha Burk will land on the desks of six members of the Augusta National Golf Club. It will ask them to explain why they belong to a club that has no female members.

A view from the azaleas at the 10th hole of Augusta National.

By Eileen Blass, USA TODAY

Bank executive Boone Knox is not one of the members getting a letter; he offers an explanation anyway.

"We have nothing against women," Knox says. "I love them all. I've got some myself. But we're a private club, and I'm all for it staying that way."

The public fight over who ought to be allowed into a private club has made news and ruffled feathers all summer. Members at Augusta National are not accustomed to being told what to do. These are the guys who tell others what to do: Augusta's 300 or so members are a who's who of corporate power and old money.

USA TODAY has obtained a copy of the long-secret membership rolls for the club that hosts The Masters, one of golf's four major championships. The names on that list tell the tale of an old boys club, emphasis on old: The average age is 72. More than a third are retired. And they come mainly from the country's old-line industries: banking and finance, oil and gas, manufacturing and distributing.

The list is interesting as much for who is on it as for who isn't. Warren Buffett, Jack Welch and Arnold Palmer are there. But you won't find the likes of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump or any publicity-loving dot-com billionaires.

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Burk

It isn't enough that an Augusta member be rich and famous. Better that he be rich and discreet.

USA TODAY attempted to contact each man on the list. Of the ones reached, almost every one toed the club line, which is this: Club chairman William "Hootie" Johnson speaks for the club.

The controversy erupted in June when Burk sent a letter to Johnson urging that Augusta admit its first female member. Johnson fired back and said the club would not be "bullied" into making decisions "at the point of a bayonet."

"We'll ask them for on-the-record statements reconciling their corporate policies with their memberships in Augusta," says Burk, chairwoman of the National Council of Women's Organizations.

Houghton, Ward and Nunn were selected for their high profiles. Galvin and Harrison were chosen because their companies are scheduled to be honored next month by the Business Women's Network at a Women and Diversity Leadership Summit in Washington.

Congressman speaks up

A look inside golf's secret society reveals:

Statesmen and politicians. Several of Augusta's members have spent half their lives in the public arena. But when it comes to their membership, they say little.

Among those who could not be reached for comment: former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady, former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird and former Georgia governor Carl Sanders. Nunn said in a statement: "As a member, I make my views known through the club's normal procedures, not in the public arena."

Only Rep. Houghton, former CEO of Corning, who's up for re-election in November, talked. Houghton says he's working within the club to express his views. And he warns that "a lot of people could get hurt" if the controversy continues through the 2003 Masters.

"You can't have an issue like this hit the papers and be an ostrich," Houghton says. "I don't know what (Johnson) is thinking. I'm sure he's considered women members. It's probably an issue of timing."

CEO convention. Major corporate leaders are among the members: Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway; Peter Coors, chairman of Coors Brewing; Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express; Lou Gerstner, chairman of IBM; Roger Penske, chairman of Penske Corp.; and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch.

See you at the board meeting. Many members serve on corporate boards together, which gives them a web of business and personal connections.

Three Augusta members — Nunn, Penske and Douglas Warner, former chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase — serve on the board of General Electric, previously led by fellow Augusta member Welch. Four of the 13 seats on the board of JP Morgan Chase are Augusta members.

Buffett and Nunn serve on Coke's board. Shultz heads the International Council of JP Morgan Chase led by Augusta member Harrison. And Ronald Townsend, former president of the Gannett Television Group, serves on the Alltel board with Joe and Scott Ford.

Family ties. New members are nominated by existing members. That might explain the many family connections amid the magnolias and dogwood. Rep. Amo Houghton and Corning chairman James Houghton are brothers. The father-son team of Steven and Riley Bechtel run construction giant Bechtel Group. Ditto for the Fords.

Retirement community. Its septuagenarian membership gives Augusta a frozen-in-time quality. Many members are elderly and retired, and most hang on to their green jackets until they die, according to member Jim Moroney, the 81-year old former CEO of Belo Corp. "It's just a joy to belong," he says.

The oldest member is Ben Gilmer, 97, of Georgia. The youngest is Jefferson B.A. Knox, 39, of Georgia.

Home sweet home. Of Augusta's 199,570 residents, 25 wear the green jacket. Mayor Bob Young, 55, does not belong. "It's a national club with an international membership," he says.

Answers to no one

Butch once asked Sundance, in a different context, "Who are those guys?"

In the case of Augusta, now we know — or largely know. Some members are new and not reflected on the list. South Carolina football coach Lou Holtz is by most accounts the most recent addition to the rolls. Bill Gates reportedly has been trying to get in for years. Now, according to Time, he's in.

Augusta National Golf Club is a golfing version of Yale's Skull and Bones: a secret society of the well-heeled that answers to one. You don't apply for membership. You get called — if you have the right combination of money, influence and friends.

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One Augusta member, a retired company chairman who would not allow the use of his name, offered a look inside how the club operates. He said the club likes to keep membership at about 300. The number of new members is determined partly by how many current members die or leave. The club sends out announcement cards if one of its own passes away.

The member says fees are in the $25,000-$50,000 range, less than many other private clubs. He says the chairman controls the club's purse strings.

Augusta has a waiting list of about 300 people, the member says. They are nominated by friends who are current members. But Johnson, the member says, has final say on who gets invited to join. Women are allowed as guests and play an estimated 1,000 rounds a year.

Augusta did not admit its first African-American member until 1990, at a time when controversy was erupting over Shoal Creek, an all-white Alabama club where the PGA Championship took place only after it admitted its first black member.

Burk says Augusta discriminated in 1990 and continues to discriminate today. The club's position is that it discriminates against no one: It is a private club, its members have freedom of association and race is different from gender. Burk counters that the club draws most of its membership from the top tier of American corporations, which have anti-discrimination rules in their businesses. She says a private club that hosts a public event like The Masters is not really private.

The club's position is that The Masters and Augusta National are separate. The Masters is a world-class golf championship that is inclusive; Augusta National is an exclusive club that is private 51 weeks a year and host to a very public event the other week.

Neither world view allows for the argument of the other. Burk says it is time for Augusta National to step into the 21st century. But members like their club just the way it is, which in many respects is how it was when golfing legend Bobby Jones and businessman Cliff Roberts founded it in 1931.

Secrecy and reticence have accrued to the club's advantage for many years. "Silence has always been powerful, from Greta Garbo to Ben Hogan," says Curt Sampson, author of The Masters. "We assume so much about people who won't talk."

But the reticence perhaps is less powerful at a time when your opponent is on the air and in the papers day after day, rousing feminist populism against a club of power and privilege.

It is hard to say who leads in the public relations battle. Many line up solidly in favor of women's rights — or solidly against what they see as political correctness run amok. But many more don't care either way. If Augusta National accepts a rich woman into its fold, it doesn't change the lives of most people who never go to any country clubs, let alone to Augusta National. They are the silent majority who agree with the sentiment once expressed by Groucho Marx: He never wanted to be a member of any club that would have him for a member.